The Deadly Replay
| Special = | Introducing = | Appearance = | Also = | Co = | With = | Uncredited = | Uncertain = | Producer = Lionel E. Siegel and Joe L. Cramer | Writer = Wilton Denmark | Teleplay = | Story = | Director = Christian I. Nyby, II | Production = 41223 | Original = November 22, 1974 | Prev = The Midas Touch | Next = Act of Piracy | Related = The Six Million Dollar Man (Pilot) }} Summary Steve visits old friend Jay Rodgers at Edwards AFB, and Jay convinces Steve to fly the HL-10 again. The HL-10 was the lifting body he was piloting when he had the accident which made him bionic. Oscar tries to talk him out of it, suggesting there may have been foul play in Steve's accident, and not to tempt fate. Steve is undeterred, and begins preparation while getting reacquainted with some old NASA friends. He soon discovers he must prove himself in the simulator before making the flight. Was the accident a malfunction, or pilot error? A man is heard giving orders to stop Steve and the mission, but both he and the person he's speaking to are not revealed. Steve's prior romance with Ted Collins' wife Andrea creates tension between the men, which flares into violence in the parking lot. Steve handles Ted easily while keeping a low profile. The next day is the simulator, where Steve will be monitored while he simulates his last mission - the one that almost killed him. Steve goes erratic while in the simulator, and passes out. Steve thinks he was drugged, and convinces Oscar to give him another crack at it, but secretly in case he is being targeted. He passes the simulator and the mission is a go. Steve correctly suspects sabotage, but decides to go forward. During the flight, as he begins his descent from max altitude, the stick slams forward as Steve activates the altitude control. He must fight thousands of pounds of pressure to pull the stick back and keep the nose up for landing. Victorious, Steve lands to the news that one of thier own team, Carl Amison had been working against them. With his testimony, they know now that sabotage also caused the accident 2 years previously. Realizing that the HL-10 bore no blame for his troubles, Steve takes a moment with the HL-10, alone. Quotes Shadetree: You got to be kiddin. You hit that ball into next week! Steve: Yeah, I guess I did kinda catch it on the screws, didn't I? That was a hundred, wasn't it pard? ---- Ted Collins: All right Steve, baby you're just about to get the ball. Get this one for the home team, huh? Oscar Goldman: Well I didn't expect to find you in the rooting section, Ted. Ted: I may not like him down on the ground, probably never will, but if he's up there, he's the man, dig it? Oscar: Dig it. ---- Oscar: How long does it take? Ted: As long as it takes! He's got the ball. Trivia *The HL-10 is identified by name in this episode for the first time as the lifting body that Steve crashed in. * The events surrounding Austin's crash are also revisited (albeit in a more fantastical way) in the third issue of the Six Million Dollar Man comic book. Deconstructed *This episode revisits the events of the pilot telefilm, which is itself in many respects out of continuity with the series. In particular the accident has been represented differently than the pilot since Wine, Women and War. The show intro continues this "tradition" of re-inventing those events. *In "The Deadly Replay," Steve's early flashbacks in the simulator are drawn from the show intro, a continuity quagmire when recreating the accident in long form. By using the show intro as a template for Steve's flashbacks (an approach which would recur in The Bionic Woman (episode)) the audience is prepped for a "blowout in vapor three" and "She's breaking up, she's breaking up" an intro-only continuity that "The Deadly Replay" will not adhere to when showing an actual flight later. *The successful flight in this episode inserts "We have separation" from the show intro, in contrast to the pilot ("The Deadly Replay" does not claim that this is the same flight). The events following max altitude show a series of crises that do not match the events of either the show intro or The Six Million Dollar Man (Pilot). The flight stick is not shown in the pilot version, where the rocking motion of the M2-F2 (the lifting body shown during this sequence) was originally unexplained (The footage is of Pilot Induced Oscillation, a "dutch roll" created by a kind of feedback in the control systems), while in "The Deadly Replay" this is a function of the flight stick malfunction. Finally, the episode concludes that both this flight and the original flight two years earlier were sabotaged, so this naturally reinvents the past by its nature. *"The Moon and the Desert" the syndicated version of The Six Million Dollar Man (Pilot), draws on "The Deadly Replay" for footage. Thus, the flight stick coming forward, originally on a flight three years after this, now is part of the original accident. This has the effect of changing the first flight in a fundamental way, making the cause less subtle. Additional footage makes its way in, such as the line "I am now a glider pilot", but not generally as recontructive as the flight stick material. "The Moon and the Desert" incorporates footage from "The Deadly Replay" that make elements of the second flight retroactively part of the first, making viewers that have seen only the syndicated version conclude that "The Deadly Replay" got these elements from the pilot, rather than vice-versa. Nitpicks *The mix of footage between the HL-10 and the M2-F2 from the pilot telefilm occurs even more extensively with some additional archival footage of the lifting bodies. This exacerbates the confusion that existed already. Scenes Deleted In Syndication Image:Steve-sees-HL10.jpg|Steve sees the HL-10 Image:Ted-and-andrea-collins.jpg|Ted and Andrea Collins Image:Mock-lifting-body.jpg|mockup of the HL-10 Image:HL10-sabotaged.jpg|Sabotage! Image:Shadetree-and-carl.jpg|Shadetree and Carl Image:Glider-pilot.jpg|"I am now a glider pilot" Image:Touchdown.jpg|Touchdown! Image:Th-The.Six.Million.Dollar.Man.S02E08.DVDrip.XviD-SAiNTS.jpg|Episode collage 208